


This Winter Sky

by shadowedellie



Category: The Martian (2015), The Martian - All Media Types, The Martian - Andy Weir
Genre: Beth johanssen - Freeform, Beth loves snow, Chris loves beth, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Snow, War and peace references, chris beck - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-07 20:17:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8814817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowedellie/pseuds/shadowedellie
Summary: So maybe sometimes Beth Johanssen can't sleep. But usually, not on a night like this. But this night is something else. She's just glad Chris Beck is there to see it too.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic, ever. It's snowing tonight, and it's very nice, so I decided write about it.

At first it fell almost lazily, the snow taking its time to reach the ground. There’s something poetic about snow, she thought. Some connection I can make between snow and space. The snow almost hung frozen to the air, like someone had stopped time as it descended. Without gravity, Beth decided. There's my connection.  
Beth pulled the blanket closer to her chin as she gazed out the window. Next to her, Beck burrowed his face into the pillow, muttering something indistinguishable in his sleep. She turned over look at him. His face was peaceful, his hair, messy. Good. She wondered if he dreamt of anything. Of Mars. Of the Hermes. She dreamt of the Hermes sometimes. When she fell into a deep enough sleep, which was infrequent.  
3:15 AM.  
The alarm clock next to her was the only light in the room, apart from the moonlight filtering in through the window, reflected off the accumulating snow. It was so still.  
Beth slowly slid up, propping herself up against the headboard, staring blankly at the clock. Maybe she could grab her laptop. Finish some more coding. She turned to the window, to see that the once lazy flakes of snow and become fat, falling heavily and fast. Oh. It hasn't snowed like that yet. Not this year.  
Maybe the coding could wait.  
Slipping her legs out from under Beck’s, she stood quietly up out of bed. Grabbing her sweater to go over Beck’s shirt she was wearing, she quickly padded out of the bedroom to the front door, slipping on her boots.

 

It was falling even faster now, a quiet chaos in the night. Beth stood in the middle of the driveway, as she stared up at the vast sky. It is so dark. Yet so light from the snow. Jesus, Johanssen, when did you become so poetic? 

 

Since you started staring out windows at 3 AM, instead of using your sleepless nights to code, like a sensible person. 

 

But you always did like the snow. 

 

She simply stood, breathing in the cold.

 

“Beth? Shit, Beth!” A panicked voice broke her from the trance she had fallen in to. She turned, surprised. Beck was stumbling out the door, his coat thrown over his pajamas and his hair even more disheveled than before.  
“Chris? You're never awake at this ungodly hour.” 

 

“Yeah, and you are. God, I woke up and you were gone. I panicked when you weren't in the house.” 

 

His usually calm-doctor demeanor was gone. Maybe it was because he'd only just woken up. Maybe it was because it was Beth, gone. 

 

“Hey, hey. I'm here, I'm fine. Come here.” She coaxed him over, holding out a hand for him take. She curled her cold fingers around his, warm, resting her head on his shoulder and staring up at the sky again. He took her lead and did the same, his blue eyes reflecting the great vastness, as the falling snow landed in his hair. 

 

“I couldn't sleep.” He snorted. 

 

“Gee, Beth,” Beck said sarcastically, “Since when?”

 

“Oh cut the shit, Chris, how could anyone sleep? This winter sky, there's never been a night like this before. Not one that I remember. You know, this is the first time it's snowed like this since we got off the Hermes.”

 

“Okay, okay, it is a damn fine sight to see.”  
They stood in the deafening silence, leaning into one another. 

 

In a hushed voice, Beck said, “If we stand out here long enough, the Hermes will pass by us, somewhere above those clouds.”  
Beth nodded, chewing on her lip. 

 

“Hi, Hermes.” She said quietly. 

 

Another minute watching the snow.  
“The moon.” Beth pointed suddenly, realizing it had come out of the clouds. 

 

“Eh.” Beck shrugged, grinning. “It’s no Mars.”

 

“It's a hell of a lot prettier, though. Look, the snow and the moonlight…” Beth trailed off, beaming at the sky, almost dazed. 

 

Beck turned his head from sky, to look at her. The cold had made her nose and cheeks pink, and she had such a childlike smile to match her distant eyes. Good. He wrapped an arm around her waist. This was good.


End file.
